Monday, November 2, 2020

A Bookshop In Berlin

Another fascinating book.  This one is a memoir written right after the Holocaust and found years later.  So glad we have this small account of Francoise Frenkel's life during the war years.  

She is a young woman at the time, starting out in life on her own.  She grew up in Poland and has left her family there to strike out on her own as a bookstore owner who after going to school in Paris loves French literature.  She opens her French bookstore in Berlin.  For a while she is successful catering to a niche audience.  As the Nazis invade France everything changes.  

Francoise ends up on the run, hiding from the Nazis and also trying to get home to her family.  Crossing borders becomes more and more difficult.  This is a story of survival and leaning on the kindness of strangers and friends.  It shows you the hard times people were living through and how there were some people who wanted to help but were too frightened and others who were willing to take more risks to help those the Nazis were hunting.

No comments:

Post a Comment